World Cup 2010 a family affair

Published>Fri, Jun 11 10 01:53 PM

Hamburg, June 11 (DPA) Family will play a role at the 2010 FIFA World Cup as Slovakia and the United States both have fathers coaching their sons, three nations have brothers in their squads and one set of half-brothers will face off for different nations.

Vladimir Weiss was already a well known in Slovakian football history, but the legacy grew in the buildup to South Africa 2010 as Weiss coached the nation to its first-ever World Cup appearance as an independent nation.

Helping the coach - at 45 the youngest team boss in South Africa - was his 20-year-old son Vladimir Weiss, who plays for Manchester City.

To add to the confusion is the fact that the coach's father is also named Vladimir Weiss and played for the Czechoslovakia national team, including at the 1964 Olympics when his son was born.

Weiss II, who played for Czechoslovakia at the 1990 World Cup, never feared calls of nepotism when he added Weiss III to the Slovak side for South Africa.

'I was warned because there were reports that I was doing him a favour. But everyone could see that he deserved his World Cup nomination,' the coach said.

The Weisses are not the only father-son combo at South Africa.

U.S. coach Bob Bradley has in his ranks his son Michael Bradley of Borussia Moenchengladbach.

'Michael is a professional player, and he understands as well as anyone how you earn respect in a group. When we're at work, that comes first,' said father Bradley.

'He's my dad, and he's the coach. I'm a player, and I'm his son. There's not much more to it, really,' said the younger Bradley.

But fathers coaching their sons at a World Cup is not unprecedented as Italian boss Cesare Maldini had his son Paulo as captain at the 1998 World Cup.

The World Cup also has seen its fair share of brothers in the past. And South Africa 2010 is no different.

Kolo and Yaya Toure are playing for Ivory Coast and Paraguay have the Barreto brothers Edgar and Diego.

Honduras brothers Wilson and Johny Palacios will undoubtedly have heavy hearts despite helping the nation to its first finals since 1982.

The pair's brother Edwin was kidnapped in October 2007 and held for ransom before eventually being confirmed dead in May 2009.

One of the strangest family instances in World Cup history is the half-brother duo of Germany's Jerome Boateng and Kevin Prince Boateng of Ghana.

Both have the same Ghanaian father with different German mothers. In fact Kevin Prince is the great-nephew of Helmut Rahn, who scored the winning goal for Germany in the 1954 World Cup final.

Jerome said it's a strange feeling knowing that Kevin Prince is playing for Ghana and not Germany - especially since they will face off against one another in their teams' final Group D match.

'I knew early on that I wanted to play for Germany. After all I grew up here and like the people, the country and the mentality,' said Jerome.

The half-brothers' relationship went sour after Kevin Prince's foul against Michael Ballack forced the German national team captain out of the World Cup. In the aftermath, Jerome was not supportive of Kevin Prince, who then cut off all contact to Jerome and does not expect to talk to him until they square off on June 23 in Johannesburg.

'He said 'Everyone goes their own way.' And I said 'We've been doing that for a long time,' said Jerome Boateng.

There was nearly another set of brothers in South Africa but Mexican coach Javier Aguirre decided against nominating top talent Jonathan Dos Santos of Barcelona, a move which heavily disappointed Galatasaray striker Giovani Dos Santos.

Among the other family connections in South Africa are cousins Samir and Jasmin Handanovic of Slovenia and the Cameroon uncle-nephew duo of Rigobert and Alex Song.

In addition, Argentina national team coach Diego Maradona is the father-in-law of Sergio Aguero while Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel is married to his coach Bert van Maarwijk's daughter.

With both Aguero and van Bommel making their national team bosses grandfathers, another generation of World Cup family connections could be in the works.

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Afridi bats for day-night Test cricket

Published>Fri, Jun 11 10 01:37 PM

Karachi, Jun.11 (ANI): The idea of playing day-night test matches has received the backing of Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi, who said the change was necessary to prevent the oldest form of the game from being rendered redundant.

"I definitely support this idea to have Test matches under lights because in this changing world it is necessary to make changes according to times," Afridi said.

Afridi, who was appointed Pakistan's Test and one-day captain recently, said that the five-day game was under threat from the tremendously famous T20 cricket.

"When you can have Twenty20 cricket and 50-overs cricket under lights, why not Test matches? I think it would increase the crowd participation and increase revenues and viewer-ship for Test matches," The Daily Times quoted Afridi, as saying.

"It is the real test for cricketers but it is also a fact that nowadays people don't have time to go to the grounds for five days during the day time. I support any move that is aimed at betterment in the sport," the flamboyant all rounder added.

Commenting on the controversial use of pink balls in day-night Test matches, Afridi said such issues could be sorted out, but what was more important was that all the three formats of the game exit together.

"When they used white ball for the first time in one-day cricket, it took time before things fell into place," he said. (ANI)

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Vastly improved Bell to make one-day comeback against Australia

Published>Fri, Jun 11 10 01:23 PM

London, June 11(ANI): England batsman Ian Bell's vastly improved performances in the Test series against Bangladesh and the domestic season have earned him a place in the 13-man one-day squad for the upcoming five-match home series against Australia.

Bell will be making a one-day international comeback after 20 months, as he last played a game in 2008.

"We are pleased to welcome back Ian Bell to the one-day squad. He has performed well for Warwickshire this season in limited overs cricket and worked hard to add a more positive, attacking approach to his game," The Telegraph quoted Geoff Miller, the national selector, as saying.

Bell's return has also been boosted by his performance in the T20, Pro40 and Friends Provident, where last season he had strike rates of 116, 96 and 76 respectively.

Miller further appreciated Andrew Strauss' captaincy and coach Andy Flower, and said that they would have an important role to play in England team's success.

"We are very pleased with the progress our one-day squad has made under the leadership of Strauss and Andy Flower over the past 18 months," Miller said.

"The challenge facing the squad now is to maintain the form they showed over the winter against the world's number one side in 50-over cricket," he added.

England face Scotland in a one-day international in Edinburgh on June 19 before taking on Australia in the series opener in Hampshire on June 22.

Squad: Andrew Strauss (captain), Craig Kieswettter (wicketkeeper), Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson and Michael Yardy (ANI)

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India look to reclaim pride in T20s against Zimbabwe

Published Fri, Jun 11 10 01:07 PM

Harare, Jun 11 (PTI) After the humiliation they suffered in the ODI tri-series, India will look to make amends and take revenge against giant-slayers Zimbabwe in the first Twenty20 International here tomorrow. Here with a second-string team, India were dumped out of the just-concluded tri-series after suffering back-to-back defeats against the spirited Zimbabweans. The host team, which lost the tri-series final to Sri Lanka, would be plotting another shocker for the Indians tomorrow. The break that followed their tri-series ouster has given Suresh Raina''s men enough time to chalk out their plans to avoid another stunner from Elton Chigumbura''s fighting side. The key to India''s success is batting and the line-up is desperately missing the heavyweights, who were rested from the series. Dinesh Karthik and M Vijay are not exactly the ideal opening pair for Twenty20s as both the batsmen are known to take their time in settling down at the crease before attempting strokes. In fact, the duo couldn''t make much of an impact in the ODI series failing to score any memorable knock. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Raina himself are the men in form and would look to continue their run in the two Twenty20s. A lot would be expected from Twenty20 specialist Yusuf Pathan, who would be aiming to prove his worth after being dropped from the ODI squad for the upcoming Asia Cup owing to poor run of form. On the bowling front, the Indian spin attack would be bolstered by the arrival of Piyush Chawla as Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha have not made a mark so far on the tour. The pace department is not too impressive either with the Ashok Dindas and Umesh Yadavs conceding too many runs for too few wickets. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, are high on morale despite the tri-series final loss to Sri Lanka. The team has shown the stomach for a fight and they would be looking to continue just that. Their batsmen showed decent form in the ODIs and would be looking to be slightly more aggressive in the shortest format of the game. Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu and Charles Coventry are proven performers and the Zimbabweans would be hoping to get some explosive knocks from them to surprise the Indians once again.

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Rooney faces 4.3 million pound suit back home hours before WC kick-off

Published>Fri, Jun 11 10 12:53 PM

London, June 15(ANI): England striker Wayne Rooney faces a 4.3 million pound payout court hearing hours before the start of the World Cup campaign in South Africa.

A Manchester Mercantile Court judge is expected to announce whether Rooney and wife Coleen will have to pay the sum to their former agents Proactive Sports Management.

Proactive had sued them claiming that it is owed 20 percent of the couple's earnings since they split from the company in 2008.ooney's agent Paul Stretford was a director of Proactive until a bust-up two years ago, when he took Wayne and Coleen with him, The Sun reports.

Earlier, Rooney gave evidence in support of Stretford, saying that he was the man he wanted as his representative.

The 24-year-old originally signed the deal in July 2002, when he was 16, but decided to stick with Stretford when he left the firm. (ANI)

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South Africa accused of 'cleansing' impoverished residents in WC beautification drive

Published>Fri, Jun 11 10 12:37 PM

Cape Town, June 11(ANI): Several 'impoverished' South Africans living in Cape Town claim that local authorities have forcibly moved them out of the city to present a good image of the nation during the World Cup, which begins today.

They said that the Jacob Zuma-Government has misplaced its priorities, and believe that their lives would not change despite South Africa hosting the world's most-watched sporting event.

Natasha Flores, one of the residents, said that she was driven out of her home near a new 450 million dollar stadium in one of Cape Town's busiest tourist areas.

Another resident, Shirley Fisher, claimed that she was evicted from a hostel near a stadium where soccer's biggest stars train.

Both ended up in Blikkiesdorp, a settlement of iron shacks ringed by a concrete fence, home to hundreds of evicted families.

"Why can't they take the money they spent on the stadiums and use it to build houses, not the dollhouses we now live in, but proper houses?" The Washington Post quoted Margaret Bennet, who lives with eight relatives in one of the shacks, as saying.

"The World Cup may be important for the high-powered people, but it means nothing for us on the streets," she added.

Cape Town officials, however, describe Blikkiesdorp as "a temporary relocation area" until proper housing can be built.

"We acknowledge that Blikkiesdorp is not a perfect solution, but it is what we can do with the existing resources," said Kylie Hatton, a city council spokeswoman.

She also denied that people had been "deliberately cleansed" from a neighborhood because of the World Cup. (ANI)

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